World Heroes: The Third Coming
by Metal Harbinger
Summary: 18 years after the last World Heroes tournament, champions from across time once again find themselves summoned to battle the evil Damudo and his vile creations. Who will be the ultimate World Hero? Tune in to find out! Based on a long forgotten 90's fighting game series.


World Heroes: The Third Coming  
by Metal Harbinger

Author's Note: Well hello there loyal readers…well I don't know if I should call you that just yet seeing as how I'm probably a new guy to most of the loyal KOF readers on this board.

Allow me to formally introduce myself, I am your one and only friendly neighborhood Metal Harbinger and I come to offer up a feast for your eyes, a tale based around the "World Heroes" series. It is only recently that "World Heroes" got its own link here on the listing, but because it's practically forgotten in this day and age and likely wouldn't get many reviews if I made it a WH standalone fic, I am forced to list it as a crossover with "King of Fighters."

Yeah, I know right now some of you are probably scratching your heads and asking yourselves "What the hell is 'World Heroes?'"

For a brief history lesson, World Heroes was a fighting game series created by ADK (who eventually closed its doors in 2000 and later had its intellectual properties bought out by SNK) for the Neo-Geo (eventually some of its titles finding themselves ported to the Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive and Game Boy) console.

The general backstory revolved around a scientist named Dr. Brown building a time machine and organizing a tournament for fighters hailing from different periods in history to combat each other and see who was the greatest.

(WARNING: Some of this text was borrowed from the SNK Wiki, which I'm only acknowledging so I don't get slapped with a lawsuit…so far my luck has held out on that front and am hoping that I don't jinx myself by typing this out.)

Anyways, the series was comprised of fighters mostly based on actual historical figures, including those inspired by real-life ninja clan leaders Hanzo Hattori and Fuuma Kotaro, who along with Neo Dio and Mudman would go on to compete in "Neo Geo Battle Coliseum," where they would rub elbows with characters from "King of Fighters," (thus lending some legitimacy to this story being a KOF crossover, that plus Janne makes a background cameo in the "Arena" stage of "The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match"), "Fatal Fury," "Art of Fighting" and "Samurai Showdown." It also featured characters inspired by Hulk Hogan, Bruce Lee, Genghis Khan and Jack the Ripper, quite an underrated game that sadly seems to be largely forgotten today.

Altogether the titles in the series were: World Heroes (1992), World Heroes 2 (1993), World Heroes 2 Jet (1994) and World Heroes Perfect (1995).

I was inspired to write this fic after reading about some ideas that never came to be for the first game in the series and plus I had a whole bunch of ideas written down for fighting game characters that I would have included in a Street Fighter fic that as of right now will likely never see the light of day, but they're so out there that I wanted them to gain some kind of exposure and so this was the perfect excuse for that kind of an undertaking.

With this story I ask the question "What if Dr. Sugar Brown (Yes that honestly is the guy's name according to the SNK Wiki…oh for God's sakes will somebody please track this guy's parents down and bitch slap them into oblivion for obviously being high on crack when they decided to name their kid!) decided to host a third tournament.

As of right now I have rambled on for long enough so please be kind enough to read and review…now on with the story! *Cracks the horse whip*

Prologue: The Third Coming

Sugar Brown yawned loudly as he reclined in his easy chair and took a sip from his morning coffee, looking out towards the vast valley which his hilltop estate overlooked.

"Just another day," he sighed quietly to himself as he was briefly entranced by a flock of geese flying overhead, only snapping out of it when they disappeared from sight.

Having finished his coffee he carefully stood up and reached for his cane, stopping to watch as one of his gardeners tended to one of the many rose bushes in his backyard. The sight was almost too much for him and he quickly made his way back inside to the safety of his personal study.

The day was still young and he had plenty of time to kill. His arthritic hip was bothering him too much for a daily stroll around the grounds, so he would have to go with the next best thing he could think of and made his way over to one of his many bookcases and would pick out whichever book his hand fell upon, thinking of what he would do to make reading the same book as interesting as it was when he read it for the very first time.

Without looking he reached for a book, halted when he caught sight of his reflection in a nearby mirror.

By now the aging scientist was receiving the obligatory streaks of gray in his formerly brown hair and had a face heavily lined with age, a testament to one who had seen much in his life. It was the empty hazel eyes that left him stuck in place.

They were just so empty, the eyes of a man who had lost sense of having a daily routine, lacking the characteristic vigor that had kept him up all hours of the night striving to complete the machine the next machine that would lead the world into the future.

Oh how he missed those days. They were the days that had taken him to the forefront of the scientific community, the days that had led him to fame and fortune, the days that made him relevant to the safety of the free world.

Now he was just an old man hidden away in a mansion on the hill, far removed from the society which had benefitted from his genius.

Dr. Brown's eyes were drawn towards a section of wall covered in certificates, plaques, medals, photographs, newspaper clippings and framed magazine covers, all of which glorified the achievements which he had attained thanks to an undying work ethic.

There was one particular front page which had drawn his attention, a picture of him standing proudly near a machine of his own creation with a headline that read _'GERMAN SCIENTIST PERFECTS THE ART OF TIME TRAVEL.'_

That had been years ago, but to the lone scientist it almost seemed like it was several decades ago, heck it could have very well been an entire millennia ago for all he knew!

His eyes were then drawn to another headline which bore the words _'DOCTOR TO HOST TOURNAMENT OF HISTORY'S GREATEST FIGHTERS.'_

Forciblytearing his eyes away from the newspaper clippings, Dr. Brown hastily made his way to a door in the southeastern corner of the room and pulled it open to find himself inside a massive corridor, one which served as a shrine to his greatest achievement.

A banner hanging overhead advertised the famed "World Heroes" tournament, one which he had personally sponsored due to his love of history and an even greater passion for fighting. He considered it to be the zenith of his career, one which would leave his name in the history books alongside those who participated.

Granted his sponsorship of the tournament had made him rich beyond his wildest dreams and had enabled him to hire his own team of scientists to continue his research, but it wouldn't be until years later he realized that had been one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made.

_"I was always so used to having a hands on approach," _he told himself as he approached a Plexiglas case housing a set of kunai daggers. Above the case was a small plaque with an inscription describing the history of the daggers and above that was an autographed picture of the man who wielded the aforementioned weapons in battle, a ninja from Feudal Japan named Hanzo Hattori.

_"In the beginning it was always me working alone to craft my masterpieces," _his mind continued as he walked over to an adjoining case housing a replica of the Murasame ninja sword that had been wielded by Hanzo's rival Fuuma Kotaro, along with a Guren folding fan he carried with him everywhere he went.

_"It was literally my own blood, sweat and tears going into my work. It had such a personal feeling to it…it was literally my own," _he told himself as he passed a vertical display case holding the deactivated original body of the German cyborg called Brocken.

_"That's no longer the case if I have a team working under me. It almost makes me feel like a fraud, a fraud to my own legacy," _he thought while staring at a football autographed by Johnny Maximum, along with a heavily-dented helmet he had worn in battle and his rookie trading card that would now be worth quite a bit of money if sold on the internet.

Dr. Brown remained silent as he drifted through the grand hall and just stared wordlessly into the cases which housed the relics he acquired from all the other fighters who had participated in his tournament: a chain sword wielded by the French knight Janne D'Arc, a self-portrait of the Russian sorcerer Rasputin, a stone statue of the martial arts actor Kim Dragon he had carved with his own bare hands, a championship belt and action figure presented to him by Muscle Power along with a t-shirt he had ripped away while performing his signature entrance, armor worn by Julius Carn, an anchor from Captain Kidd's pirate ship, an axe and shield used in battle by Erick the Viking, a mask and pair of bongo drums used by Mudman's tribe, a Ji halberd used by Ryofu, a Judo trophy won by Ryoko Izumo, a monkey statue that had been a gift from Son Gokuu, one of the claw gloves taken from the maniacal serial killer Jack the Ripper and lastly an actual pair of kickboxing trunks worn by the Muay Thai warrior Shura Nai Khanomtom.

At the heart of his collection was the very time machine he had used to gather the aforementioned warriors, his most prized creation.

"All the work I put into you," he said feeling its steel surface, "It was by my very own hands you were created," he sighed sadly.

He longed for the days and the action it had brought to his otherwise dull existence, but a more logical side tried to warn him it came with a price, his arthritic hip throbbing as if to emphasize the point.

He couldn't forget the mad scientist from the future known as Damudo, a megalomaniac who desired to take over the world and had sent his artificially created soldiers to wipe out the tournament participants. First it was Geegus, then Neo Geegus, then Dio and lastly Neo Dio, not to forget there was also that extra-dimensional being called Zeus, the very man who had inflicted his injuries and left him for dead. It was only the timely intervention of Hanzo that kept him alive.

That was eighteen long years ago and much had changed since then, but the one thing that hadn't changed was the doctor's love of fighting and his sense of adventure. In spite of the risks it presented he wondered if it could be done all over again.

_"There has to be a way I can make the necessary augmentations so that Damudo or Zeus can never find out about this ever again. There just has to be," _he thought to himself as he began closely examining his invention, _"If I could do this all over again, I could host another tournament on a much larger scale. I only caught the tip of the iceberg the last time around. There is so much more history out there and with it, powerful warriors from those times. The possibilities would be plentiful!"_

Dr. Brown's mind was brought back to the present as the lights suddenly began flickering above him.

"That's strange," he muttered to himself placing a hand upon his chin, "My handymen recently rewired this entire room-" he was saying just as there was a loud crackle of electricity, followed by another and another until several bolts were crackling throughout the spacious room.

"What's going on here?!" he demanded, his heart racing as he threw himself behind a pillar hoping to avoid being electrocuted as there was a large burst that sent him leaping out of his shoes and falling forward with his hands over his head, the numerous blasts becoming deafening before there was a loud thundering…and then everything had stopped just as suddenly as it started.

"What on God's green earth?" he demanded as he rolled over onto his side and looked on in stunned silence.

A black circle was burnt into the center of the red carpet leading to his beloved time machine and in the center of it was a figure that appeared visibly disoriented.

"Damudo…" a male voice called out and it was then the young man steadied himself.

Whoever this mysterious figure was, he had immediately attracted the good doctor's attention. _"Who is this man and how could he know of Damudo?"_

"Where am I?" the man demanded as he turned to face the aging scientist, dwarfing him by nearly a foot.

He stood well over six feet tall and almost resembled some kind of soldier with his olive drab jumpsuit with a bulletproof vest worn over it that was crisscrossed by two bandoliers of bullets, along with a utility belt, black knee pads, black combat boots, brown fingerless fighting gloves and a black flight helmet with a visor over his eyes.

Dr. Brown did not immediately reply to his inquiry, backpedalling in fright until he bumped into the container storing Brocken's original body. His cane had fallen out of reach and he knew the mystery man would get to him before he could grab it. Ever since his last encounter with Damudo's forces eighteen years ago, he had gone through the process of having the seemingly ordinary wooden cane outfitted with secret weapons, a tool he hadn't had to use for defensive purposes just yet, but was wishing he had it now to give the man a surprise he would never forget.

Finding himself within the presence of a seemingly harmless man in a white lab coat, the soldier cautiously lowered his guard and let a few seconds pass before slowly removing his helmet to reveal his face. He was a somewhat haggard looking man in his early 30's with short brown hair, a pair of ice blue eyes, and a thin scar just above his left brow.

"Where am I?" he again asked, this time in a calmer tone.

Dr. Brown stared at him nervously before replying, "You're in my estate. Where should you be?"

The soldier ignored his question and looked around at his current environment, staring in awe at some of the relics surrounding him.

"I definitely shouldn't be here," the man finally replied, "My squad mates and I were carrying out a raid on Damudo's laboratory. We had the weasel cornered when he turned this weird machine and tried to escape. I went after him…but what am I doing here?"

"Damudo," the researcher audibly gasped, "Sir, are you from the future?"

"Why yes I am," the soldier replied, "Wait a minute, just what year am I in and more importantly, how do you know of Damudo?"

"Why you're in the year 2013," Dr. Brown said pulling himself back to his feet and pulling himself along the display case, "I know who Damudo is because I gathered the World Heroes eighteen years ago and they fought against him and his creations…we should have stopped him once and for all!"

It was then that everything finally made sense to the soldier and he snapped his fingers, "You're Sugar Brown!"

The researcher stared at him awkwardly and his face drooped, "You know who I am?"

"We all know who you are Dr. Brown," the soldier replied, "In our history books we know you as the brave researcher who assisted the World Heroes, but I'm afraid he was still around for another 400 years. It's still an honor to meet you though," the soldier said extending his hand.

"And you are?" Dr. Brown asked still staring warily towards the man.

"Sergeant Frank Mercer, at your service sir!" the man said clasping the researcher's bony hand.

"Well if you're here Sgt. Mercer, then that must mean something is afoot," Dr. Brown replied and on cue his cellular phone suddenly began ringing. Pushing the _'ON' _button he spoke, "Dr. Brown speaking!"

_"Dr. Brown, you need to turn on your TV at once! It's urgent!" _one of his researchers spoke.

"Very well," the doctor said switching off his phone and turning to face the futuristic commando, "Come with me Sergeant."

Dr. Brown briskly made his way back into the adjoining study and found the TV set's remote on a nearby table. Picking it up he switched the set on and was met by the sight of two familiar faces duking it out on the Golden Gate Bridge as a cameraman recorded all the action from a news helicopter.

_"-our sources tell us that the two men mysteriously appeared from out of thin air and have been fighting back and forth ever since," _the reporter's voiceover in the background spoke as the German cyborg Brocken launched his fists towards Hanzo Hattori, who in turn leapt over the explosive projectiles and launched two large shurikens towards his opponent.

"I don't believe it! It's happening all over again!" Dr. Brown called out switching the channel to a sports channel broadcasting a golf tournament, where a bolt of lightning struck the earth just as the golfer was about to take his big swing.

The notorious 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper suddenly appeared from the blast and was quickly running around looking for fresh blood, causing all of the spectators to running away in horror.

"My god," Brown gasped again switching the channel, over to a children's program where the host dressed in a neon green dinosaur costume was knocked out by the spirit warrior Mudman, who had now drawn out a pair of bongos and began playing them as the children looked on nervously.

"This definitely has to be Damudo's doing, but why here and why now?" Sgt. Mercer asked.

"Maybe he's plotting something and maybe your raid that you speak of triggered it," Dr. Brown replied looking back to his guest, "Whatever the case is we need to get the other heroes rounded up and find out what's happening.

He could only look back into his trophy room and stare at his beloved time machine in awe. It was morbid to say, yet he couldn't help feeling a sense of vigor not felt in years. At last he had another project to undertake.

"Just like it was in the good old days," he whispered to himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Note: And so begins the prologue of what may be an epic fighting tournament that will include 32 fighters (all 17 original in-game characters returning being Hanzo Hattori, Fuuma Kotaro, Rasputin, Janne D'Arc, Julius Carn, Brocken, Kim Dragon, Muscle Power, Captain Kidd, Erick the Viking, Johnny Maximum, Mudman, Ryoko Izumo, Shura, Ryofu, Jack the Ripper and Son Gokuu), plus 15 newcomers!

Until then, I look forward to reaching out to a whole new group of reviewers and hope to present you with some awesome new characters, so until then read and review! This is Metal Harbinger saying SPREAD THE SICKNESS, ONE MIND AT A TIME! \m/


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